Canary
Islands
As
we approached the harbor in the Canary Islands we saw this town on the
hillside.
Every home there has a
view of the
sea.
The city of Tenerife.
This performance hall
has a lot in
common with the Sidney opera house, don't you think?
Parks and high-rise
buildings as you
would expect in any city.
We took a bus tour to
the volcano in
the
center of the island.
Once we got above the
clouds we could
see a neighboring island, Gran Canaria.
Our first view of the
volcano.
Actually that isn't
quite
correct. We had been driving on the volcano since we left the
city.
The mountain, el Teide,
was formed
after the central part of the original volcano collapsed forming the
bowl
of the caldera.
Lava flows can be seen
on the
hillside.
The rock in the
foreground is Aa lava.
In the distance is part
of the wall
of the caldera.
Lava was ejected from
the depression
forming a spatter cone.
The exceptionally clear
sky makes the
Canary Islands a great place for an observatory.
Its location near the
equator is also
important since it permits viewing a large fraction of the sky.
We stopped to take in
this view.
The hills in the
distance are the
wall of the caldera.
A lava flow is seen
coming in to the
valley from the right.
The rock formation is
known as "The
Thumb of God".
Volcanos leave some
interesting
structures.
This one was leaning too
much to suit
Nancy so she straightened it a little.
Jumbles of rocks are
fused into one
by the pressure and time.
At times they look like
a vanilla and
chocolate layer cake.
Coming back down the
other side of
the mountain we saw terraced farmland.
We don't think we have
seen grapes
and potatoes growing in adjoining fields before.
We should have colorful
apartments
like these.
We had some time to walk
around the
city of Santa Cruz to see what it was like.
Some musicians and
spectators along
one of the streets.
A couple of the
monuments there.
We wish we had time to
see more of
this island and its neighbors.
Select one
of these links to
see other places we visited on this trip.
Barcelona,
Canary Islands, Malaga, Morocco, Valencia, The ship, Plants and animals
Go to our Science Fun page
Go to our Travels page
Go to our Personal
home page
Go to our Community
page
E-mail Nancy and Alan